Editing Eric Stanton

{{short description|American illustrator}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image         = Eric-Stanton-300px.jpg
| caption       = Eric Stanton, circa late 1950s, early 1960s
| birth_name    = Ernest Stanzoni
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1926|9|30}}
| birth_place   = New York City, U.S.
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1999|3|17|1926|9|30}}
| death_place   = [[West Haven, Connecticut]], U.S.
| pencil        = y
| write         = y
| ink           = y
| alias         =
| notable works = [[Sweeter Gwen]], [[Bound in Leather]], [[Pleasure Bound]], [[Tame-Azons]], [[Stantoons]], [[Blunder Broad]], [[Prinkazons]].
| awards        =
}}
'''Eric Stanton''' (born '''Ernest Stanzoni Jr.''';<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pérez Seves|first1=Richard|title=Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground|date=2018|publisher=Schiffer|location=Atglen|isbn=9780764355424|pages=12–18}}</ref> September 30, 1926 – March 17, 1999) was an American underground cartoonist and [[Sexual fetishism|fetish]] art pioneer.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=9–11}}<ref name="Independent">{{cite web |last1=Perrone |first1=Pierre |date=June 5, 1999 |title=Obituary: Eric Stanton |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-eric-stanton-1098149.html |website=[[The Independent]] |access-date=May 7, 2018}}</ref>

While Stanton began his career as a bondage fantasy artist for [[Irving Klaw]], the majority of his later work depicted [[gender role reversal]] and proto-feminist [[female dominance]] scenarios.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|p=10}} Commissioned by Klaw starting in the late 1940s,{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=28–32}} his bondage fantasy chapter serials earned him underground fame. Stanton also worked with pioneering underground fetish art publishers, Leonard Burtman{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=74–80}} (publisher of ''Exotique'' and Selbee magazines), the notorious Times Square publisher Edward Mishkin,{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=70–73}} paperback publisher Stanley Malkin,{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=165–176}} and later magazine publisher [[George W. Mavety]]. For a decade, Stanton also shared a working studio with [[Marvel Comics]] legend [[Steve Ditko]].

Past the soft-core era of the 1960s, his art became more transgressive. Creating a mail-order business in the 1970s named the "Stanton Archives," Stanton sold his work directly to fans and, starting in 1982, issued offset staple-bound fan-inspired books known as "Stantoons," producing more than a hundred by the time of his death. In his lifetime, Stanton also contributed to countless underground publications and later adult magazines like ''[[Leg Show]]'' and ''[[Leg World]]''. In 1984, Stanton had the only art exhibit in his lifetime at the [[New York City]] nightclub [[Danceteria]]. Artists [[Banksy]], [[Allen Jones (artist)|Allen Jones]], and [[Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna]] among others took inspiration from Stanton's work.

==Biography==

===Early life and career===
[[File:Bizarre Museum 17.jpg|thumb|An episode from ''Bizarre Museum'', originally published in 1951–1952]]
Stanton was born and raised in [[Brooklyn]], New York,{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|p=12}} the son of an Italian father and a Russian mother.<ref name="Independent" /> During [[World War II]], while in the US Navy, a head injury left him partially color blind.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=21–22}} Following this, he was an art assistant to [[Boody Rogers]] on ''Sparky Watts'' or ''Babe,'' supplying background art and plot ideas.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kroll|first1=Eric|title=The Art of Stanton|date=2012|publisher=Taschen|location=Cologne|isbn=9783836539302|page=8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Yoe|first= Craig| title=Boody| publisher=[[Fantagraphics Books]] | year=2009| isbn= 978-1560979616| page= ???}}</ref> Though his personal preference was for drawing lady wrestling and fighting women comics, he was commissioned to create [[bondage (BDSM)|bondage]] fantasy chapter serials by Irving Klaw, who also sold pin-ups and movie stills from his shop on 212 E. 14th Street.<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels |publisher=Greenwood |year=2010 |isbn=9780313357473 |editor-last=Booker |editor-first=M. Keith |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=YbkJ0QJrEZ8C&dq=eric+stanton+irving+klaw&pg=PA648 648] |chapter=Underground and Adult Comics}}</ref> This marked the beginning of his fetish art career. Stanton then attended the [[School of Visual Arts|Cartoonists and Illustrators School]] in the early 1950s, studying under comics artist [[Jerry Robinson]] and others.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=37–42}} One classmate was future [[Spider-Man]] and [[Doctor Strange|Dr. Strange]] co-creator Steve Ditko. Another was [[Gene Bilbrew]], whom he introduced to Klaw.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=37–38}}

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:EricStantonBoundBeauty.png|thumb|220px|1960s Stanton pencils inked by studio-mate [[Steve Ditko]],<ref>Bell, Blake. ''Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko'' ([[Fantagraphics Books]], [[Seattle]], Washington, 2008), p. 50. ISBN 978-1-56097-931-0 {{Please check ISBN|reason=Check digit (0) does not correspond to calculated figure.}}</ref> from reprint comic ''Tops and Bottoms'' #1 (October 1997).]] -->
From 1958 to 1968,{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|p=213}} Stanton shared a [[Manhattan]] studio at 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue with Ditko. For many years, the two collaborated on fetish comics.<ref name="ditkostanton">{{cite web | last = Bell | first = Blake | url = http://www.ditko.comics.org/ditko/crea/crerstan.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021008051153/http://www.ditko.comics.org/ditko/crea/crerstan.html | archive-date = October 8, 2002 | title = Ditko & Stanton | publisher = Ditko Looked Up | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }} Additional .</ref><ref>Theakston, ''The Steve Ditko Reader'', pp. 13–15 (unnumbered, pp. 14–15 misordered as pp. 16 & 14)</ref> Ditko biographer Blake Bell, without citing sources, said, "At one time in history, Ditko denied ever touching Stanton's work, even though Stanton himself said they would each dabble in each other's art; mainly spot-inking",<ref name="ditkostanton" /> and the introduction to one book of Stanton's work says, "Eric Stanton drew his pictures in [[India ink]], and they were then hand-coloured<!--as spelled in source--> by Ditko".<ref>{{cite book | last = Riemschneider | first = Burkhard | title = Eric Stanton: For the Man Who Knows His Place | publisher = [[Taschen|Benedikt Taschen Verlag]] | year = 1997 | page = 4 (unnumbered) | isbn = 978-3-8228-8169-9}}</ref> In a 1988 interview with [[Greg Theakston]], Stanton recalled that although his contribution to Spider-Man was "almost nil", he and Ditko had "worked on storyboards together and I added a few ideas.... I think I added the business about the webs coming out of his hands".<ref>Theakston, ''Steve Ditko Reader'', p. 14 (unnumbered, misordered as page 16)</ref> According to the fetish art historian and Stanton biographer Richard Pérez Seves, Stanton may have purposely underplayed his role and contribution to Spider-Man to maintain his friendship with Ditko.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=143–151}} Even more startling, evidence exists that Stanton also made uncredited contributions to Dr. Strange.{{sfn|Pérez Seves|2018|pp=99–100}}

===Later career===
[[File:Cover of Running Wild by Myron Kosloff - Illustration by Eric Stanton - First Niter FN102 1963.jpg|thumb|Cover illustration by Eric Stanton for ''Running Wild'' by Myron Kosloff (a pseudonym of [[Paul Little (author)|Paul Little]])]]
Starting in the late 1960s, Stanton supported himself by self-publishing and distributing his work to a quasi-underground network of subscribers and patrons. His offset printed ''Stantoons'' comic-book series, which began in 1982, continued to his death in 1999 and featured many of his best-known "transgressive" concepts, including the [[superheroine]] Blunder Broad,<ref name="stan5">In ''Stantoons'' #5, for example</ref> and the [[Amazons|Amazon]]-like Princkazons.<ref name="stan5" />

====Blunder Broad====
Stanton created Blunder Broad in the 1970s with writer [[Andrew J. Offutt]] (a.k.a. ''Turk Winter'')<ref>Eric Stanton, foreword to ''Blunder Broad'', Glittering images, Firenze, 1991</ref> for use in a great number of [[BDSM]] adventures. A parody of [[Wonder Woman]], Blunder Broad is an inept [[superheroine]] who continually fails in her missions and is invariably tortured by her enemies, who include a lesbian supervillainess called Leopard Lady, Pussycat Galore, or Cheetah, and her male sidekick Count Dastardly. Blunder Broad can be deprived of her super strength when subjected to [[cunnilingus]].

====Princkazons====
With "Lady Princker", Stanton and Shaltis (as well as Alan Throne and Winter) created the Princkazons storyline in which women around the world grew oversized female penises, or "princks". These women also grew taller and stronger than men and began dominating and humiliating the men in public, including [[facesitting]],<ref name="stan5" /> [[urophagia]],<ref>''Stantoons'' #24, for example</ref> [[coprophagia]],<ref>''Stantoons'' #15, for example</ref> and anal and oral rape.<ref name="stan5" />

==Legacy==
Beginning in the mid-1970s, Bélier Press, a New York publisher of vintage fetish art, reprinted many of Stanton's comic serials in its 24-volume ''Bizarre Comix'' series.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.comics.org/series/54243/ |title=Bizarre Comix |website=Grand Comics Database |access-date=October 22, 2017}}</ref> Titles, mainly from the 1950s, include ''Dianna's Ordeal'', ''Perils of Dianna'', ''Priscilla: Queen of Escapes'', ''Poor Pamela'', ''Bound in Leather'', ''Duchess of the Bastille'', ''Bizarre Museum'', ''Pleasure Bound'', ''Rita's School of Discipline'', ''Mrs. Tyrant's Finishing School'', ''Fifi Chastises Her Maids'', ''A Hazardous Journey'', ''Helga's Search for Slaves'', ''Madame Discipline'', and ''Girls' Figure Training Academy''.<ref name="Independent" />

Book-length collections of Stanton comics have been translated into many foreign languages, including French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Additionally, Stanton's art was reprinted in the 1990s in [[comic book]]s from [[Fantagraphics Books]]' imprint [[Eros Comix]]: ''The Kinky Hook'' (1991), ''Sweeter Gwen'' (1992), ''Confidential TV'' (1994), and ''Tops and Bottoms'' #1–4 (1997). Individual issues were subtitled "Bound Beauty" (#1), "Lady in Charge" (#2), "Broken Engagement" (#3), and "Broken Engagement 2" (#4).

==References==
{{Reflist|35em}}

==Further reading==
* ''Eric Stanton & the History of the Bizarre Underground'' by Richard Pérez Seves. Atglen, Schiffer Publishing, 2018. {{ISBN|978-0764355424}}
* ''Eric Stanton: Bondage Enthusiasts Bound in Leather '' edited by Richard Pérez Seves. New York: FetHistory, 2022. {{ASIN|B09ZQ7VBNQ}}
* ''Eric Stanton: Bound To Please & Other Bizarre Art'' edited by Richard Pérez Seves. New York: FetHistory, 2023. {{ASIN|B0C9SNG4C7}}
* ''Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art [*Expanded Photo Edition*]'' by Richard Pérez Seves. New York: FetHistory, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1973773771}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{cite web| url= https://thefetishistas.com/eric-stanton-november-cover| title= Eric Stanton and the History of the Bizarre Underground| publisher= The Fetishistas.| first= Tony| last= Mitchell| date= 2018| access-date= December 4, 2018| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181205103321/https://thefetishistas.com/eric-stanton-november-cover/| archive-date= December 5, 2018| url-status= dead}}
* {{cite web | url = http://www.malevsfemale.org/showthread.php?t=17271 | title = A Tangled Web | publisher = An article by Eric Stanton's daughter about his role in the creation of Spider-Man. Mixed Wrestling Forum (originally published in "The Creativity of Steve Ditko", 2012) | first= Amber | last= Stanton | date= 2012 | access-date= November 6, 2015}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanton, Eric}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:1999 deaths]]
[[Category:American comics artists]]
[[Category:American erotic artists]]
[[Category:American people of Italian descent]]
[[Category:American people of Russian descent]]
[[Category:Artists from New York City]]
[[Category:BDSM people]]
[[Category:Bondage artists]]
[[Category:School of Visual Arts alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American artists]]